Week 1 - Bath

What better way to start the week than by getting up at 5am, packing the last few bits in to a suitcase, putting the rubbish out and then picking the kids out of bed one by one and getting them in to the car, with a toilet stop so that we can drive through. They were great and we made our ferry with plenty of time. I had booked us seats in the lounge (or first class as Siobhan liked to say) which I would recommend to anyone travelling with kids as they have an endless supply of coffee, tea, juice,
water and food, all free of charge.

Once off the boat we drove almost 400 kilometres to Center Parcs Longleat; the original plan when I booked was to meet one friend along the way for lunch and another was to stay with us, but unfortunately both plans went wrong. If you take kids out of school in the UK you get fined for it. I love our freedom. The park is massive and also car-free, but luckily they have a train (a jeep pulling some carriages) which chugs around all day to deliver you to your house (or as close as possible). The kids loved this and I was delighted as they are not great walkers.

I am just going to add pictures of our stay, we did none of the extra activities because they were so expensive, much to Cara's dismay as otherwise she would have been scaling up trees and swinging from them all day.

Luckily there was a somewhat smaller adventure playground which was free of charge. The subtropical swimminmg pool was open for all as well, and we had to get Ana to lie about her age, because otherwise she would not have been allowed down the slides on her own (well depending on which lifeguard was there). I might return to that Center Parcs, it makes for a handy stopover between the ferry and London, and it is a lovely forest, but the service and cleanliness in the pool area were not really up to scratch, nor did I find it particularly child friendly.

Anyway, seeing as the purpose of the trip was to visit Bath, we spent one day exploring there. The thermal baths are really very exciting and interesting, and very very child friendly. Each visitor, inclusing children, receive an audio device, and there are numbers on the walls beside each item or room in the museum which you enter in to your device in order to hear the history of it. This is further divided in to talks for children and for adults. Absolutely ideal for my girls who are tech freaks and learn best through sight and sound rather than by reading (maybe with the exception of Siobhan). They were also given a quiz sheet. We were in there for ages and ages. Well worth a visit!
Once again I am just going to upload pictures as they tell the story themselves.

The audio thingies

Ocelot photobombs the mosaic

3D mural

Enjoying it

Bricks, there was a video about how these are made which Cara found very interesting

Walking through Bath we met a man with pigeons. These pics are my favourite.

I just love this pic

Cara got pooped on

We also visited the fashion museum while we were there, and this was absolutely fabulous! Once agian the girls were given audio devices and a quiz sheet.My girls are fashion queens anyway, so it was very interesting for them to see fashion through the ages and how it has changed from beautiful to bag-shaped. There is also a dress-up section, and we spent a lot of time here and had a lot of laughs. Finally, the girls got to draw and colour their own designs and then we had to race back to the car park, alas too late, I got a parking ticket (which I must pay). I wonder would they send me a ticket to The Netherlands if I don't pay it?

The fashion museum has massive ballrooms with amazing acoustics and the girls were wondering if you could hear a fart

Cara said the pillars smell of gingerbread

The girls found these dresses very amusing

Siobhan kindly told me my facial expression suits the dress